One Mom's Adventures in Education and Aviation

01/28/2012

A Helicopter?!?

Last July while the mechanic was busy fixing airplanes someplace sandy, my future pilot and I were driving back and forth from our home on the Space Coast to national dance competition in Orlando. If you're not familiar with the scheduling of dance competitions it is a requirement that they will always be the same weekend as the Super Bowl, Daytona 500 and 4th of July. Driving back to the house on the 4th we were having a very unfair discussion about "because your call time is very early we won't be going to see fireworks." I offered a special treat of her choice to make up for missing the fireworks and going to bed early. She was amazingly mature in her response and even slept in the recliner so we wouldn't have to get up extra early and re-braid her hair.

After competition was finished the next day, we headed over to I Drive for lunch. She immediately noticed the air traffic in the area and asked why there were so many helicopters. Just then we were passing the building where the helicopter tours were leaving from and I was told "I think I want to do that. It scares me but I have to do it."

So, the mom that had at that point never left the ground in anything other than a commercial plane walked into the helicopter office, booked 2 tickets and stood on a scale in public!

After an hour and a half wait and a free tour of the model train museum we were off.

{Notice my almost believable smile}

{My baby chose to sit up front with the pilot instead of in the back holding her momma's hand}

I new it wasn't going to feel like my commercial flight to Seattle, but I wasn't quite prepared for how it did feel. Helicopters don't want to fly, they can't glide like a fixed wing and instead beat the air into submission. This does not make for a smooth and reassuring experience. I quickly realized that I could pretend I wasn't there if I looked only thru the little screen on my camera.

My baby wasn't so sure about it either. I did some quick talking over the headsets and pointed out that you could see the dolphins at Seaworld. (All future career talk lately has been a combination of aviation and animals.)

After seeing the dolphins she was all smiles and was already planning another flight for when our mechanic came home.

That smile makes any anxiety worth every moment. (but it doesn't make me comfortable enough to let go of her arm, why did I think that was helping!?!)